June 4, 2010 -- U.S. News & World Report has released its 20th annual list of the nation's top children's hospitals.

The news magazine says it ranked hospitals in specialties ranging from cancer and heart disease to orthopaedics. In order to be eligible to be ranked, each pediatric hospital had to provide data about their services and capabilities on a submission form called the Pediatric Hospital Survey. Of 170 hospitals, 96 submitted data for the 2010 rankings.

In ranking each eligible hospital, scores of 0 to 100 were assigned. Reputation accounted for 35% of the score, outcomes such as surgical survival and avoidance of complications from procedures represented 25%, and care-related indicators such as the ratio of nurses to patients made up 40% of the score in each specialty. The top 30 hospitals in 10 pediatric specialties were identified in the U.S. News & World Report list.